Personal information of some 1.5 million patients was stolen from SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare provider, in July last month.

“I am personally affected, and not just incidentally,” PM Lee wrote on his Facebook page. “The attackers targeted my own medication data, specifically and repeatedly.”

It was reported that the Singaporean authorities know who was behind the attack but remain tight-lipped. At a press conference after the cyber-attack, Cyber Security Agency Chief David Koh said, “We are not able to reveal more because of operational security reasons.”

On Tuesday (21 Aug), Nikkei Asian Review published a news report naming China as the country suspected behind the cyber-attack on Singapore. It quoted Fergus Hanson, head of the Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Mr Hanson said, “It certainly fits with a pattern of Chinese Communist Party cyberactivity.”

Beijing, he noted, has been accused of other major healthcare hacks in the U.S. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Nikkei’s request for comment.

Matt Palmer of risk advisory Willis Towers Watson gave credit to the Singaporean authorities for detecting the cyber-hacking “in a matter of days”. Among Asia-Pacific governments, the median time from breach to discovery was 498 days last year, according to a survey by U.S. cybersecurity company FireEye.

Mr Palmer also said the SingHealth incident shows that even countries that take cybersecurity seriously face major risks, and would struggle to defend themselves against determined online adversaries. Attacks on Southeast Asian countries like Singapore serve as “a wake-up call globally,” he added.

“Chinese culture requires friends to help each other. In view of its traditional friendship with Singapore, Beijing hopes the island state will use its unique role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and its influence in the region to help China solve its disputes with neighbours (over South China Sea issue). At the very least it wants Singapore to remain neutral.

But Singapore’s gestures on the (Hague’s) ruling have dismayed Beijing. Singaporean officials have spoken repeatedly in support of the ruling, which Beijing rejects as ‘illegal’ and ‘none binding’. Not only has Singapore supported the ruling – it has made efforts to mobilise international pressure on China.”

In any case, after the 9 SAF Terrex vehicles were seized by Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, PM Lee appears not to comment about South China Sea disputes in public anymore.

Find us on Facebook

Democracy is best served by having an informed and involved citizenry that has access to a wide range of sources of news and views and an open and vibrant environment in which to share and to debate ideas and opinions.